Cowboys get Stephon Gilmore from Colts; Dallas agrees with Leighton Vander Esch: Sources

By Jon Machota, Zak Keefer and Bob Sturm

The Indianapolis Colts traded cornerback Stephon Gilmore to the Dallas Cowboys, the team announced Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know:

The Cowboys are giving up a 2023 fifth-round compensatory pick for Gilmore.
Gilmore started 16 games for the Colts last season, finishing with 66 combined tackles (53 solo) and two interceptions. He is a five-time Pro Bowler and a two-time first-team All-Pro.
Dallas also re-signed linebacker Leighton Vander Esch to a two-year deal worth $11 million, per a league source.
Safety Donovan Wilson is another piece of the Dallas defense locked into place, as he agreed to a deal that is three years, worth up to $24 million and includes $13.5 million guaranteed, a league source and a team source confirmed to The Athletic.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Backstory

Dallas allowed 207.8 passing yards per game last season, eighth in the NFL. The Cowboys were 12-5 in 2022, falling in the divisional round vs. the San Francisco 49ers. The Colts (4-12) missed the postseason for the second straight year.

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What are the Colts losing?

From the Colts’ end, the shame of this move is that Gilmore was one of the team’s few bright spots in 2022 — he started 16 games, had two interceptions and clinched three last-second wins with pass break-ups (against Kansas City, Denver and Las Vegas). He heard a lot of what was being said after his exit from Carolina — mainly that he was finished as an elite corner — and Gilmore, even at 32, was intent on proving he was still one of the best in the game. He did that in Indy, and was a steadying force in the secondary despite the chaos that engulfed the Colts’ 4-12-1 season. — Keefer

Signs of a rebuild in Indy

With the trade, the Colts net a fifth-round pick and add about $9.9. million in salary cap space. This signals that the rebuild is on, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more veterans are traded or released in the coming days. The Colts released quarterback Matt Ryan on Tuesday, per a league source, before a big chunk of his 2023 salary kicked in. Center Ryan Kelly could be another one, a move that would clear up roughly $8 million more. What does the team plan on doing with that financial flexibility? That’s what we’ll have to wait and find out. — Keefer

Why Dallas picked up Gilmore

From every possible perspective, this is a very good gamble for the Cowboys. Gilmore may not be what completely what he was when he was arguably the league’s best corner, but he is still plenty effective. Dallas saw that first hand in his visit to town in December when he had a very nice game. He comes to town to hopefully help a Cowboys secondary that had no third corner in San Francisco. They played Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland and four safeties, including their fourth safety playing big corner in Israel Mukuamu.

This is certainly not a ringing endorsement for the big investment in the position in the 2021 draft with Kelvin Joseph and Nahshon Wright in the second and third rounds, but they were unable to gain a foothold of trust from the coaching staff and front office in December and were quickly shunned for flyers on Mackensie Alexander and Xavier Rhodes.

Rhodes, ironically, was replaced by Gilmore in Indianapolis in 2022 and now Gilmore follows him to Dallas with one year left on his deal where he should fit nicely with what Dan Quinn likes to do with his corners and combined with Diggs, there will not be many NFC teams that can match the 1-2 punch of those corners on a Cowboys defense that already was pretty salty all around. This is a very reasonable idea for the team at the cost of a fifth-round compensatory pick. I think this will offer some positivity for the time being in Dallas. — Sturm

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Grading the trade: Cowboys land Stephon Gilmore from Colts, set up dynamic CB tandem

What are the Cowboys gaining?

Many mock drafts have projected the Cowboys to take a corner with their first-round pick, No. 26 overall. That’s clearly not as much of a need now. Anthony Brown is an unrestricted free agent. Jourdan Lewis has one year left on his deal.

Gilmore will be 33 this upcoming season so the prime of his career is likely behind him. But he started 16 games last season for the Colts, intercepting a couple passes and defending 11 more. He also had a career-high 66 tackles. The Cowboys would love for him to perform like 2019 Gilmore, when he had career-highs with six interceptions and 20 passes defended. But they’d gladly take a repeat of last year’s performance. That coupled with a play-making secondary that includes Diggs, Bland, Donovan Wilson, Jayron Kearse, Malik Hooker and a pass rush led by Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence, and the Cowboys should continue to have one of the NFL’s best defenses in 2023. — Machota

Required reading

(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)